Black Ops 2 – Video Review:

Written Review:

After an enormous amount of anticipation Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 launched finally this week right around the globe on the PlayStation 3, Xbox360, PC and will be out on a later date for Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U Console. Black Ops 2 is set to become one of or if not the biggest entertainment release of the year, the Call of duty Series is a powerful and influential video game franchise that continues to grow & grow each year, and it doesn’t look like it slowing down any time soon. We’ve been playing around with the games Campaign, Multiplayer and Zombie game modes & here’s what we think of them. So sit back, relax and maybe heat up some popcorn while your at it.

It’s the year 2025 and world’s most precious and rarest resources are running low but are in high demand, the games story revolves around a modern cold war between the United States and China. Cyber terrorism will play a major role in the campaign as a terrorist organization manages to hack into the United States military drone & weapons network causing mass havoc. Call of Duty Black Ops 2′s campaign will take you on an epic journey
around the globe fighting bad guys – not only in the year 2025 but also back in the 1980′s. For me the storyline is everything I hoped to it be, fun, engaging & emotional. Unlike previous Call of Duty games Black Ops 2 will play out somewhat differently, for the game will feature non-linear gameplay – branching story options and a lot more re-playability. Treyarch has also introduced a new type of gameplay mode in the campaign known as ‘Strike Force’ missions. In these missions you, the player choose how to play them out. You can take a more tactical approach and watch the fire fight above from a UAV drone or immerse yourself into the battle taking more of a ‘run n gun’ approach. When playing through levels in Black Ops 2 you have more freedom on how you want to progress through the level. Although there is a downside to this new mode, a lot of the time missions don’t play out as you would expect and moving units around the battlefield can become a problem as they are usually quite unresponsive.

Controls in the game remain the same, which is good, but I did notice a bit of a different feel from when playing missions during the 1980′s and during the year 2025. Gameplay wise Black ops 2 offers a lot of variety, you’ll see some pretty epic cutscenes as well as play through some amazing on foot battles but also some really cool vehicle missions where you take control of futuristic jets and remote controlled drones. Having played the game on both the PlayStation 3 and PC I have to admit I was a quite disappointed with the graphics and the overall look of the game on the console, although on the other hand the visuals on the PC looked superb.

Now onto the Multiplayer, personally I think the multiplayer in Black Ops II is the best it’s ever been, you can tell Treyarch spent an enormous amount of time discussing how to keep players engaged with new features but at the same time keeping it fun. Multiplayer now has a deep integration with eSports and social media. New eSports features include:

Live Streaming: The Ability to live stream gameplay directly from your console.

League Play: You and your team compete in competitive matches and work your way up a leader board ladder.

COD Casting: Offers players a Brand new way to spectate matches.

Another feature we’ve taken a liking to is the new ‘Pick 10′ create a class system, where each weapon, perk or piece of equipment has its own amount of points, players must create their class while reaming in the point limit, which is 10. This makes creating your classes a little more tricky often making you have to sacrifice one item or perk in order to have another. Treyarch have also introduced a new ‘Wild Card’ feature into the create a class system that allows players to do what they’ve never been able to do in a Call of Duty game before. For example you can add add three attachments to a weapon of have more than three perks in one custom loudout

Combat training, theatre mode and Wager matches have all made a return. Wager matches now known as Party Games still feature the same game modes from the last Black Ops game but no longer include the doubling down or betting system. The core features of unlock and ranking up system we’ve seen past Call of Duty games mainly remains the same in Black Ops 2, you kill enemies and complete objectives during matches to reach a higher rank but now also weapons can be ranked up and upgraded to suit your needs.

Even if your new to the Call of Duty series the multiplayer has something for everyone. Yes, it can get a little annoying at times when the servers are down or you cant find any games but overall it’s great fun and will provide hours upon hours worth of gameplay. The variety of maps are good, the futuristic weapons and attachments are awesome and the new hardpoint and multi team game modes are ….. well just simply fun.

And finally the zombie mode, probably the most anticipated portion of the game. Zombies in Black Ops II has undergone some pretty drastic changes that might take some players a little while to get use to. Zombies now uses the Multiplayer engine and features, new and extensive Stats-tracking, as well as an improved Leader board system for bragging rights among your friends. The new skill-based matchmaking system now allows players of the same skill levels to be teamed-up to fight Zombies in public game modes.

Apart from the Zombie ‘Survival’ mode we’ve all come to love from past Call of Duty games, Black Ops 2 features three all new gameplay modes:

Tranzit – Players are placed in a large open world with a variety of locations and that can all be accessed by a bus. Yep a bus, This fine looking motor vehicle will take you and your buddies around the map but be warned this bus can be breached by zombies.

Grief – Team up with your friends to challenge another group of 4 people in a Humans vs. Humans vs. Zombies mode The team with last humans standing wins.

Custom Zombies – Fine-tune your Zombies experience and test your skills with Custom Games settings, from being able to select the Difficulty level and Starting Round.

Theatre mode has also been built into zombies mode allowing players to players to record, share and go back and watch their previous matches. I am a little disappointed with the maps in zombies. for those who have played the game would know that Traznit is the largest of all the maps and is made up of the other 2 zombie maps town and farm. I would of rathered treyarch to also include other larger maps that weren’t included as part of tranzit Yes there is Nuketown 2025 but that’s not something everyone has access to as it was a pre-order bonus. I guess we’ll have to wait to see what future DLC brings.

VERDICT:
Black Ops II sets a new standard in the series taking story telling in videos games to a whole new level. what I love the most is that Treyarch have kept the core features of the call of duty franchise’s that players will recognise but also stepped out of their comfort zone brining in new features, although most aren’t yet perfect and could of been worked on a little more, i think they’ve done great job. Yes overall it does have a few little problems here and there, but there nothing that should deter you from buying the game.